Dvorak A. - Rusalka Op 114

Rusalka is one of the most popular and also the most performed works in the Czech opera repertoire and is the true culmination of the entire operatic oeuvre of Antonin Dvorak. A powerful source of inspiration for Dvorak was the masterful libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil, in which the fairy-tale realm symbolically encounters the world of human joys and passions. This is a fairy-tale drama about the ill-fated love which Rusalka, a water nymph, nurtures for a human being. In order for her to love and be loved, she must renounce her native water kingdom. With the help of the witch Jezibaba's spells, she is transformed into a person, however, she has to pay for this transformation by remaining mute. The Prince soon becomes weary of her cold, silent beauty. In despair, Rusalka yearns only to return to the watery depths. The Prince, once again lured by Rusalka's magic, goes back to the forest lake, but Rusalka's kiss of reconciliation and redemption is, for him, the kiss of death. Dvorak's musical setting for the fairy-tale libretto has exceptional dramatic impact and lyrical fervour; the whole opera has a suggestive, quasi impressionistic atmosphere. The score is published together with a Czech and German text (transl. Robert Brock). The editor of this title, part of the first Complete Critical Edition of Works by Antonin Dvorak, is Jarmil Burghauser.